How the BBC created a monster: Savile's star status gave perfect cover to seek out victims

Perfect cover: Big questions are being asked as to how the BBC allowed Savile to cover his tracks

The BBC transformed Jimmy Savile into a national treasure with almost unparalleled power and status which he ruthlessly exploited.

He was the driving force behind TV and radio shows including Top Of The Pops, Jim’ll Fix It and Savile’s Travels, which made him a trusted household name.

But his position also gave him the perfect cover to single out vulnerable youngsters for his sexual gratification across six decades, the police said last night.

And his relentless charity work gave him such an aura of invincibility that anyone who spoke out against him was silenced – or simply not believed.

BBC colleagues seemingly turned a blind eye as he roamed the country preying on children who saw him as their idol.

In the words of Commander Peter Spindler, who led the Metropolitan Police review: ‘He groomed a nation.’

Although Savile was always regarded as an eccentric, many colleagues knew he had a ‘darker side’ but did nothing.

He used letters from his Jim’ll Fix It postbag to turn up at schools, hospitals and even a cancer hospice unannounced in his Rolls-Royce or campervan.

Doctors, nurses and teachers were so dazzled by his celebrity, they gave him unsupervised access to those in their care. And BBC bosses did nothing as Savile used his career to target children as young as eight, often in their buildings.

Police said his first crime at the corporation was recorded in 1959, although he did not work there full-time until 1965.

This was the start of the ten-year peak of his career as his star rose when he fronted Savile’s Travels and Top Of The Pops.

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Officers have since discovered the BBC’s Television Centre in West London was one of his key hunting grounds as he invited impressionable youngsters to his shows.

Predator: Savile used his program Jim'll Fix It to acquaint himself with children

Famous: Savile used his celebrity status to his advantage as he continued his secret life as a paedophile

In 1972, he groped a 12-year-old boy and sexually assaulted two of the boy’s young female friends during a break in filming Top Of The Pops. He claimed at least 33 victims at TV or radio studios, including pupils from Duncroft School in Surrey.

Yesterday, Scotland Yard revealed Savile indecently assaulted a girl aged between 13 and 16 by groping her through her clothing on the last episode of the show in 2006.

But it was the thousands of letters from fans of Jim’ll Fix It that allowed him to roam the nation as he dedicated his life to sexual abuse.

More than 1,500 children appeared on the show as it was watched by millions during almost 300 episodes broadcast between 1975 and 1994.

Many viewers are believed to be among the 50 victims at hospitals and 14 victims at schools that he claimed over 54 years.

Did Patten block abuse helpline?

BBC chairman Lord Patten was yesterday accused of blocking the setting up of a national helpline for Jimmy Savile’s victims.

Peter Saunders, head of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, claimed his officials were told the helpline would not go ahead because the BBC thought licence fee cash should not be used – even though it had been assured it was to be privately funded.

Instead, the BBC said it would donate a ‘small sum’ to Napac. The helpline, supported by Napac and the NSPCC, would have been modelled on ChildLine and was aimed at helping survivors of abuse from anywhere in Britain.

But Mr Saunders said an official had told him that Lord Patten had personally vetoed the helpline during private talks, adding: ‘That is very sad.’

The BBC Trust said in a statement: ‘This is not an accurate account of events. The BBC worked with, and took advice from, both the NSPCC and Napac. Initial discussions were held with both organisations around the need for a dedicated hotline for victims, which would have been run by NSPCC with the assistance of Napac.

‘The chairman of the NSPCC told Lord Patten that he believed there was no need for the BBC to establish a separate hotline as he was confident that they were fully able to deal with the volume of calls.

‘Lord Patten never dismissed the idea. Although Napac would still have preferred to launch a new helpline, the BBC decided not to proceed following further discussions with both charities.’

Savile once claimed that he disliked children and this was key to the success of Jim’ll Fix It, which he devised and presented. Later, as rumours swirled around him, he claimed the remark aimed to deflect attention from his personal life. Detective Superintendent David Gray said thousands of letters from fans of Jim’ll Fix It gave the pervert cover to prowl the country.

He said: ‘He was a celebrity. He could turn up on his own if he wished to do so. He travelled around the country in his campervan.

‘He could do anything. He was also written to by patients in hospitals, often with serious illnesses, who said, “Please come and see me”.’

Yesterday’s report said questions over why teachers, health workers and BBC colleagues failed to stop Savile are central to the scandal.

It said he ‘hid in plain sight’ and used his celebrity and fund-raising to access children and muzzle victims. Experts believe he ‘cunningly’ built his whole life around his sick desire to abuse children and adults of both sexes.

Mr Gray, who led the inquiry, said the ‘working assumption’ is Savile was a key player in an ‘informal’ paedophile ring.

He said: ‘He has spent every minute of every working day thinking about it [abusing children].

‘He was programmed to react in that way. He would have picked the most vulnerable.

‘He was clever enough to know the ones least likely to speak out or whose credibility was compromised. Even if they did speak out, they would never be believed.’

Peter Watt, of the NSPCC, said Savile used his fame, character and physical presence to enforce silence. He also carefully selected the most vulnerable, often young offenders or those with mental health issues.

Mr Watt added: ‘He hid in plain sight behind a veil of eccentricity, double-bluffing those who challenged him from vulnerable children to a prime minister.

‘The fact one of the last assaults took place on the last episode of Top Of The Pops makes it all the more chilling.’

The BBC has begun a review of its culture and practices during the years Savile worked there.A spokesman said: ‘The BBC is appalled that some of the offences were committed on its premises.

‘We would like to restate our sincere apology to the victims.’

'Why did he get away with so much for so long?'

By Emily Andrews

Savile targeted people from all walks of life over 54 years of abuse. Some of them found solace in yesterday’s report. But many are still angry he was allowed to get away with so much for so long. This is what some of them had to say:

Anger: Savile forced himself on Caroline Moore during a charity hospital visit

THE PARALYSED GIRL OF 13

Paralysed Caroline Moore said Savile abused her as a star-struck 13-year-old recovering in the children’s ward at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1971 following an operation to fuse her spine.He sat on her bed, and thrust his tongue down her throat.

Speaking yesterday from her home in Glasgow, the 53-year-old said: ‘I am still very angry that there were so many missed opportunities to stop him, not only from producers and managers at the BBC who promoted and protected him, but heads of hospitals and schools that turned a blind eye.

‘Why was this unprecedented abuse allowed to continue? It could have been because he was raising as much money as he was and the hospitals feared they would lose the money.

‘But there were also those who feared him because he had so much power. Managers in positions of responsibility should be named and shamed.’

THE TOP OF THE POPS FAN

Sylvia Edwards was groped live on Top Of The Pops as it was broadcast from BBC studios in November 1976.

Afterwards, she told a BBC floor manager of her horror, only to be told: ‘Get lost – it’s just Jimmy messing around.’

Footage shows the then 19-year-old sitting next to Savile as he announces the next song, but a horrified Sylvia leaps off of her chair, shrieks and tries to move away from smirking Savile, who calmly talks into the camera.

He grins as he shoves his hand up her skirt, tries to grab her bottom and fondles her – as she looks distressed and tries to wriggle free.

Yesterday she said: ‘I’m glad that it’s all coming out because people knew about it and they just didn’t do anything. I’m glad that a lot more people have come forward.’

Horror: Savile attacked Sylvia Edwards (circled) during a live broadcast of Top of the Pops

THE TROUBLED RUNAWAY

A troubled 14-year-old, Deborah Cogger had run away from home and was enrolled in the now-defunct all-girls Duncroft School, near Staines. It was there that Savile would routinely visit with gifts and ‘circle the room’ picking out the most attractive teens to molest.

Now 52, the mother-of-two from Essex said that she felt the report had brought solace to his victims.

‘It’s given a lot of people closure. Just to be able to finally be believed – it’s not even telling the story.’Recalling when she first met Savile, she said: ‘It was so horrible and shocking. He grabbed me and I wasn’t quick enough to get out of the way. That vile tongue of his, tasting of cigars, went right down my throat.’

Closure: Deborah Cogger was attacked when she was a vulnerable runaway

ATTACKED ON THE RADIO 1 ROADSHOW

Kim Anderson was 19 and working in a restaurant that many of the stars of the Seventies frequented.

She was invited on to Savile’s Radio 1 Roadshow tour bus in 1980. Savile lunged at her as she sat down on a couch and she fought him off as he tried to kiss and touch her.

Speaking from her home in France, she said: ‘I do hold the BBC to blame – they created a very powerful man and then let him get away with unspeakable things.

‘When people realised what he was doing, they just turned a blind eye and did nothing.

‘I do hope that if there’s anyone still alive who worked at the BBC, Stoke Mandeville, Broadmoor or the schools that allowed this to happen they should be prosecuted.

‘Savile is dead, but there must be many people still alive who should be named and shamed. Why hasn’t this report named them? The managers and producers who knew from Jim’ll Fix It, Top Of The Pops and the Radio 1 tour. I had no idea of the scale of it and it makes me feel that I should have reported it.’

CUB SCOUT VICTIM ON JIM’LL FIX IT

Cub scout Kevin Cook said he was abused by Savile and a second man when he visited the BBC studios in London for a recording of Jim’ll Fix It as a nine-year-old in 1976.

He said the attack took place in Savile’s dressing room and the DJ then warned him not to tell anyone.

Reacting to the report, he said: ‘I’m shocked by the amount and the time it’s gone on and the amount that’s gone on.’